


Shinigami's Bet

by Buf_buoda



Category: Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28717890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buf_buoda/pseuds/Buf_buoda
Summary: What if the Otsutsuki lied to everyone? What if Shinigami was the only original local god left? What if his years of planning and patience were finally about to bear fruit? What will happen when He bets it all on one person? Very AU. Crosspost from FF.net
Kudos: 3





	Shinigami's Bet

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah. So this is set in a tweaked universe. The changes will be evident as the story progresses, and I'm leaving a lot of things implied so I can hax the shit out of them later. However, I do have a solid idea of the foundation of the metaphysics I'm using in this AU. The superstructure might be more pliant.
> 
> I don't like canon Hiruzen, so I'm changing him up a bit. For someone whose nickname was ‘professor’ and ‘ god of shinobi’, he sure wasted a lot of resources - Orochimaru, ROOT, Jiraiya, the relationship with the Uzumaki, Konoha’s reputation for being the ‘good guys’, etc. It makes no sense to me. I think that Danzo has more of a likelihood of getting behind something like Akatsuki, not Orochimaru. 
> 
> Canon Uzumaki clan was also weird to me - so I'm tweaking a bit, and using an idea from Doomsday (The Perfect Adaptation) for their bloodline, and another from a fic I read on here for its final form (The Unlimiter). 
> 
> Canon Minato was too flat to me - almost like a Japanese Jesus who was a little more retarded. 
> 
> Don't even get me started about the ‘academy’ ugh… 
> 
> Hopefully this story comes out good. I think the idea is kinda ok, but I hope I have the ability to bring it to life.

Publicly, he was best known for his speed that made his movement seem like near-instant teleportation. It helped him hide his actual teleportation jutsu in plain sight. Privately though, he was best known for his paranoia. It was only natural therefore, that he was drawn to fuinjutsu.

He idly reflected on that fact as he contemplated the stylised flame emblazoned on his meticulously tidy desk, chin in hand. He had always been self aware enough to realise the lengths his madness could take him. Like all good leaders, he mitigated for the fact as best he could via his subordinates. As soon as he fell in love, his paranoia began dictating necessary steps towards her safety. Even now, no one knew that he was married. The aggressive headhunting of every shinobi bearing the Namikaze name after what he did to Iwa only proved his point. It was only compounded by the fact that she was a jinchüriki. They had inked their custom seal bonds on each other as soon as they could make it work.

The array of seals that made up their bonds only grew more complex as they'd gotten better at general fuinjutsu - her clan fuinjutsu was completely beyond him even if she was willing to teach him, which she wasn't. It helped that she was as paranoid as he was as well. Maybe more. When seen from that perspective, he supposed that it was only rational that two paranoid shinobi seal masters would go overboard when they discovered that they were expecting. In short order, they'd each signed the toad contract despite her mistrust of all things Konoha, added reverse summoning seals to each other linked to mount Myobokuzan, and discreetly made business decisions that would pay forward towards their raising their coming baby. Her inability to learn senjutsu mostly rendered the toad contract useless for her. As she began to show, it was a little thing to be joined by the Hokage in a small ceremony of five, and ‘assign’ her a ‘long, undercover mission’ to ‘establish a supplementary spy network’, the official cover for her movements that shuffled between mount Myobokuzan, and a refurbished clan bunker in the ruins of Uzushiogakure. The fact that she could be summoned instantly to Konoha, and that her pregnancy would put Konoha at risk of a berserk Kyūbi was the only reason Hiruzen even considered letting his jinchüriki out of Konoha.

He leaned back into his chair.

She was expected back today - two days to her expected delivery date. Iryo jutsu made it possible to accurately tell the delivery dates down to within 48 hours. Per their preparations, she'd stay in a small quarters he had in a remote part of Konoha's massive forests away from the main village. The sandaime's wife herself was going to be in charge of the delivery - she was the best in the village at the prisoner seals that held the Kyūbi - and the Hokage had entrusted her a team of his most trusted medics. That didn't mean that everything would be dandy, but between the preparations and seals in and around the quarters, and the thorough consideration which the yondaime granted them, his paranoia was somewhat sated.

As always happened when he became introspective like this, his biggest, most irredeemable, personal failures paraded themselves in his mind - Obito and Rin. He knew the kind of profession they practised - death rode piggy back from the moment they put on the hitai ite. He knew that their deaths were unavoidable - one in war, the other killed by their last team mate in a mission gone south. He knew all that, yet it did nothing to lessen the burden of guilt. He wasn't sure if he wanted anything to do so. He felt Inu’s muted chakra as he entered the lounge preceding the office to relieve the visible ANBU on guard. The boy… man… was perhaps the only one besides the Hokage and Jiraiya who knew that he was married and expecting a child. Idly, he trickled some chakra into one of the paired seals just above his left breast. A corresponding pulse answered him in seconds, reassuring him that she was well.

* * *

Kushina felt the pulse in the paired seal that rested on her left breast.

She smiled as she responded. She was always happy to know that the love of her life was thinking about her. Her mind returned to the scrolls sealed into her wrist tape. Her final trip to the ruins of the village was to try and unlock the last part of her clan heritage. She knew the theory of the how, but the practice would be infinitely more complicated. Minato was adamant that their first child would bear Uzumaki, so she needed to ensure that there was something to pass on. She couldn't unlock the third stage of her chakra evolution. It was only to be expected - the kitsune would never work with her seeing as she held Kurama-sama prisoner within her, irrespective of the reason. Not to be defeated, she'd turned to scavenging. She didn't find anything that would seem immediately useful, of course. The MAD seals fixed to Uzushiogakure’s chakra veins destroyed everything and everyone left in the village and its environs as long as they fell within its chakra range.

She sifted through the debris, and paid her respects in the ruins of her clan compound, then spent the rest of the day wandering the village ruins, confronting the destruction she'd only heard of as a child. The old bitterness at Konoha sprang up. Without Minato there in person, she let it swell, a satisfying companion to the despair at the abandoned ruin that was all that was left of her village. One of Konoha's founders had dared kidnap Kurama-sama. Only Mito-sama’s marriage to their kage, and said kage’s personal destruction of Madara stopped the clan from scouring Konoha in revenge. There was a kill-on-sight order for any Uchiha that was in effect until the village was finally destroyed - such was the hatred towards the dojutsu users.

Her friendship with Mikoto was all the more miraculous for that fact.

Only the work of Mito-sama had even protected the bijuu from the disgrace of being at the beck and call of the despicable man. The elders had been unable to break the genjutsu the bijuu was under - they had no experience in actually dispelling genjutsu since they couldn't be caught in one anyway. Unwilling to take the risk that would come with Kurama-sama’s freedom while still a thrall of the Uchiha, she'd been chosen as Mito’s successor when the woman began to succumb to the deterioration of her chakra pathways. It hurt that there wasn't really anything she knew too well here. She'd left for Konoha when she was only a child, too young to have advanced much in the clan secret kunoichi societies, and too young to be told who her biological parents were.

She idly cycled chakra into the baby in her womb.

She was to be the mother of the first real Uzumaki born since the village was destroyed. The other Uzumaki in Konoha weren't from the main branch. They were the remnant of the surviving Uzumaki retainers and allied family shinobi, drawn by Konoha’s open invitation. Almost by rote, she also channeled into the shared Uzumaki clan network, pulsing her chakra signature through the seal all Uzumaki had placed on their hearts. She'd been doing so every day since the village fell, hoping against hope to get a response one day. The baby kicked in her, and she chose to take it as the fates’ answer.

“Yes, my dear son. You're here; we're still here. The clan still lives,” she whispered to herself.

The white-haired man who was her travelling companion popped back into the carriage as though it was not speeding along. It always puzzled her how the man managed to hone harmless ridiculousness into such a deadly weapon. Even knowing who he was - how dangerous he was - she could feel herself almost relaxing around him, her instincts dismissing him as a non-threat. It was probably part of how he got laid so often, even as a raging pervert.

“You'll be sitting in a warm bath within the hour,” he said by way of greeting.

He'd been gone when she woke up this morning, as he'd been for the past two days since they entered Hi no Kuni. She was hardly helpless - an Uzumaki is most dangerous when they've been still for longer than an hour, after all. Still it was a comfort to have the old shinobi with her - especially since he'd been allowing his monstrous chakra to freely leak into his presence. It served the dual purpose of hiding hers, and warning everyone else to beat it.

“Once again, thank you for escorting me, Jiraiya-sama,” she replied, using the formal mode of address just to see the lecher pout.

He didn’t disappoint, letting out a dramatic, put upon sigh.

“Kushinaaaa!” he pouted, going as far as using the henge to produce fake, cartoonish tears. “Why do you always treat me like I'm old?”

“Because you are,” she replied primly.

Dark thunder clouds appeared over his head, pouring purplish rain as his tears streamed out harder.

She laughed, and the man smiled at her. Yes, Konoha might not be all that, but she would stay for people like Jiraiya.

* * *

Chouza waited on a bench in the paediatric section of the Shinobi Main Hospital with Inoichi and Shikaku.

The blonde Yamanaka clan head was pacing, tension evident in every step he took. Not that Chouza wasn't tense, mind you. He was; they all were - even the Nara was tense enough to forgo his mask of lazy indifference. Their first children were being born, after all. The clan heads of the Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi clans were always born together with the hope that their chakra would latch on to each other, creating a bond that was almost a biological thing. The clans carefully planned the births of the heirs to coincide with each other, so much that labour was induced if any of the three hadn't started when one had. The three men waiting together were the most successful incarnation of that hope. Ever.

The deceptively portly shinobi brought another piece of roasted meat to his lips. He wasn't too worried about the birth itself - the Kumo spy currently being worked over in TI was by far the larger worry. Kumo nin were like cockroaches - they were horribly persistent, and where there was one, there were more. There were no coincidences in their job. Whenever Kumo spies were discovered, Kami had thought it wise to warn you that you were about to lose something to theft or sabotage. All the clans were taking measures to protect their interests. All mourges were under the microscope. The Uchiha and Hyuga were in total lockdown, only venturing out in groups of no less than five. Konoha was on a hair trigger. The smaller clans had to pick up the slack in terms of the standard bandit killing missions. Even reservists were called up pending when the threat could be accurately judged and summarily dealt with - a departure from the Sandaime's usual indirect style.

To an outsider, it would seem that the Third was somewhat obsessed with integrating civilians with the shinobi. It was true, yet so far from the whole truth that it might as well be a lie, of course. Hiruzen wasn't called the ‘god of shinobi’ because he had a killer goatee. The reality of the situation was the exact opposite of that idea - especially as the third shinobi war had drawn to an end. As the war wound down, it was obvious that the Sandaime was reevaluating a lot of things - especially the undue influence his former teammates and the civilian council exerted in military decisions. The travesty surrounding Sakumo’s death made it clear that the only way the village could work would be if the village remembered that it was primarily a shinobi village - with the emphasis on shinobi. Civilians were welcome, provided that they recognized that simple fact.

Ironically, the village became even more liberal as a result, achieving the goal of gathering strength while looking weak. As new blood entered the decision making process of the village in the forms of Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Minato, little shifts in policy began to occur. The one of the more popular ones was the Clan Acquisition Program. To replenish the dwindling shinobi population, Hiruzen focused on clan recruitment of foreign shinobi clans that were being hunted to near extinction - especially in Mizu no Kuni and Uzu no Kuni.

Jiraiya’s idea of a ‘Clan Restoration Act’ was undoubtedly the most popular act proposed, despite the fact it was crushed ruthlessly by the rest of the shinobi council, much to the white haired super pervert's bitter disappointment. Orochimaru's focus was mostly on artificial bloodlines. His crowning work (according to him) was the successful implantation of the Mokuton in mind washed cursed automatons - captured bandits he'd rewritten with his infamous cursed seals, and implanted with the Mokuton bloodlimit. They were notoriously fragile, but bandits were everywhere, making for easy replenishment. The biggest downside was that they were not battle suitable, and were only used for construction in and around the village.

“... ra-sama, Akimichi-sama, you can come see your wives now,” the voice of the chunin medical attendant brought him out from his musings.

Inoichi shot forward like an arrow, leaving himself and Shikaku to come at a more sedate pace. The blonde was really too excitable for his own good. As they turned the corner and approached the paediatric ward, they heard their teammate suddenly burst into tears inside. He stuffed down his mortification along with another piece of meat at the sight of the blonde gurgling nonsense at a wrapped bundle - presumably his child as he wept. Shikaku actually covered his eyes in embarrassment. One could nearly forget that the blonde got kicks out of interrogation, watching him like this. One could nearly forget that his official kill count was in double digits.

“Man,” snarked the dark haired woman at Shikaku.

“Woman,” he replied, his lazy drawl nearly literally visible.

The two cracked a smile almost simultaneously, their baby forgotten as the two lovebirds got lost in each other's eyes. Their shadows were actually wrapped around each other.

“Sometimes, I think we're the only sane ones in this group,” said the third and largest woman as he stepped towards her.

He tried to put his arms around her, but her hand shot out and grabbed his crotch. Instinctively, he folded around it, trying not to pull away. Something would give if he did, and it wouldn't be her hand. A sharp tug, and he scooted closer.

“Now that the heir is out of the way, we have no need for the others to be present before you satisfy me,” she whispered, sounding like the most frightening, and the most erotic thing he'd ever heard. “You holiday is over, husband.” It was surreal to hear that from a woman holding her newborn in one arms, and your balls in the other hand. It was almost sad that they were the ‘normal’ ones.

* * *

Time blurred into one pain-filled, never ending moment for Koki.

He was with the insane one now - the one that never asked any questions, but only brought pain. The first time he screamed, she had squirted on him. He might have been blindfolded, but when you feel fluid splash accompanied by that moan? The bitch was crazy. He'd made the mistake of getting hard. If he ever made it out of here, he doubted he'd ever be able to get it up again at the sight of anyone who remotely looked like her.

She was taking a break now - he could smell dango. He still didn't know how he was compromised. One moment he was free, happy as a clam, and the next he was falling, precision strikes closing his tenketsu as chakra stabbed into him. He had given them nothing useful, using his last moments to cut away the compromised portions of his spy cell by exposing those he'd been suspecting, making it easier for whoever would take over from him. He just had to hold on. Once he missed his next check-in in a few hours, the plan would automatically accelerate without him. They showed him the calendar at some point in his pain filled existence. He knew it was just a trick to break him, yet he could do nothing about the despair that nearly crushed him when he considered the treacherous thought that the calendar could actually be correct.

No. He wouldn't believe it. It had to be longer than 2 days. It just had to be.

Something grazed his cheek and thunked into the wall behind him. He suppressed a flinch. If he didn't, he would only be encouraging her. He just had to hold on.

* * *

Anko frowned at the prisoner - not that he could see it. She hated Kumo spies - they were notoriously difficult to get information from, even for a Yamanaka as powerful as the department head. She and Ibiki tortured the sap, trying to crack the mental discipline that allowed him to control the narrative of the information pulled from his head by Inoichi-san. The stupid fucker could at least have the decency to flinch when she threw projectiles at him. It was pathetically easy to simulate an orgasm - a squirt bottle and her special mixture, with some creative moaning to bait the trap. He'd gotten hard, as expected, and she'd ruined that part of his psyche, methodically breaking it. Kumo nin were ridiculously proud of their libido, and had no qualms about using it to torture their own prisoners. A favorite tactic of theirs was to rape a kunoichi round the clock, keeping her alert and awake via drugs and healing chakra until she broke. Stories of their ‘bloodline assimilation projects’ were used to frighten young clan girls into behaving. It was only poetic they took it away from any of the bastards they ever got their hands on. Even though he'd given them piss all, the little he'd spilled was still troubling. It eventually boiled down to two things - sabotage or theft - possibly both, because why the fuck not. The truth was that they were at an impasse - either Inoichi brought out the big guns and broke his mind, or the man would stall till whatever he was part of occurred.

* * *

It had all gone horribly wrong, horribly fast.

Minato rolled away from a crashing foot that split the earth where it hit. A white blur flashed in the corner of his eyes, and his attacker broke off to deal with Jiraiya’s assault. He stumbled to his feet, senses still whirling from forcibly breaking out of the genjutsu he stumbled into as he tried to evade. He felt searing heat from a katon jutsu in time to flash away while applying a brief chakra shroud to mitigate the heat, but the enemy pursued him. Pain lanced through his arm as he intercepted a kick aimed at his head. He was thrown back as he allowed the motion to throw him in the direction of the only other person with him.

The three figures stood at an impasse, two panting men facing a man who was supposed to be dead as fires raged around them. The man's armour barely made a sound as he swung his gumbai on to his shoulders in a deceptively open stance.

“Hn, you fight well for Senju pawns,” the man said.

“Uchiha Madara,” panted Jiraiya, identifying the man, and sending cold tendrils of terror through Minato.

“Oh? It seems one of you can identify your betters at least. Step aside, I am here for what is mine in the Uzumaki wench, and her spawn. Take the gift of your lives until I come to destroy your village,” the man said in a tone filled with boredom.

Minato's heart lurched erratically in fear as he desperately sought a way out. Madara still had his eyes closed.

“Kuchiyose no jutsu,” called Jiraiya, slamming his hands to the ground as Minato deflected the gumbai hurled at the toad sage.

A pair of diminutive elder toads appeared, took one look at the opponent, and hopped on to the white haired sages shoulders, palms together as they started gathering natural chakra.

“Oh? Are we playing with summons now?” The man turned to him, unsettling with eyes that were still closed. “Do you want to summon pets as well?” he asked.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Minato raced through the seals for his own summoning, never taking his eyes off the man before him. Massive smoke poured around them all as Minato allowed excess chakra bleed into the jutsu, and the two groups jumped away from each other. Using the distraction of the summoning smoke, he created three shadow clones - all three using the hiraishin to appear in the Hokage’s office, the jonin headquarters, and to his wife's side the instant they were corporeal. They needed all the reinforcements they could get their hands on.

“I might as well have some fun too, I guess. Those your reinforcements will be troublesome, so let me give them something to play with,” the man said absently as the smoke cleared to reveal Gamabunta.

“Oi! Oi! Oi! Minato! You summoned me to fight Uchiha fucking Madara?! Are you fucking suicidal?!” shouted Gamabunta incredulously at him as Jiraiya sped towards Madara in the hope of interrupting his sealing, his chakra reserves swelling as the two toad elders perched on his shoulders fed him massive amounts of natural chakra. Minato ignored the toad boss, choosing instead to race through another set of seals that were twins to the ones the toad boss was currently racing through as well. He started the final chakra moulding just as Madara brought his palms together, a purple barrier that looked like ribs springing between him and the rasengan wielding Jiraiya.

“Kuchiyose no jutsu,” drawled Madara almost lazily.

Summoning smoke covered the battlefield and for a heartbeat, there was perfect silence broken only by the cracking of the forest burning around them, and the heart rending cry of pain that came from the cabin they protected as though violently torn from the throat powering it. Then the horrible pressure of the demonic chakra flooded the entire battlefield, turning what was merely a horribly wrong situation into certain death. The shockwave from the roar of the Kyūbi flung Jiraiya away and into the toad boss who stumbled as his hand seals fell apart. The pressure was unbearable, a physical thing that threatened to squeeze life from everything that could hear it. It only cut off when Madara patted it's head, and it turned hateful eyes that swirled in the pattern of a sharingan. Minato could not begin to wrap his head around the fact that the Kyūbi had apparently been summoned from inside the seal, and was under their opponent's control.

Manda was suddenly beside the toad boss, her summoner Orochimaru standing on her head along with Hiruzen whose Hokage robes were billowing around him, even as Jiraiya flickered into being beside him from wherever he'd been hurled to. The infamous Uchiha sighed as though he was disappointed.

“So you're the Hokage of this place now, Hiruzen-chan? Listen, I just want the Uzumaki - you are being quite rude to your elders, you know…”

“Uchiha Madara, as a co-founder of this village, surely you know we will not comply?” rasped the Hokage, his pupils almost solid brown as Enma harmonized nature chakra for him in his staff form.

“Perhaps,” replied Madara. “It seems that I have to reorder your priorities,” the long haired man said, almost as though he was musing.

“Go play,” he said, patting the fox as he straightened and hopped from its head.

It wasn't until the demon fox turned towards the village that Minato realized what the Uchiha meant.

“Minato, take care of the bijuu. We'll take Madara,” instructed Jiraiya, his eyes fixed firmly on the man whose eyes remained closed even with everything that had happened. It was a testament to the danger of their opponent when the Kyūbi was the lesser of the evils.

The ANBU commander flickered as he used the marker his clone placed on his comatose wife before he was forcefully dispelled to appear beside her, the beginnings of a plan knitting itself together when he saw the wrinkled form of the newborn. His fingertips came alight with chakra as he pressed them into a seal just above the now empty bijuu seal, a newly formed clone using the second half of the key opposite him. Twisting his chakra in the correct combination and in sync with the clone, he inputted the code that unlocked the stored reserves of his wife. Her eyes shot open as the stored chakra poured into her and supercharged her Uzumaki healing. She grabbed him with panic in her eyes.

“The baby!”

Desperation gave her fingers inhuman strength as he felt the bones of his wrist grind together.

“But…” He tried to interrupt.

She was not having a bit of it. “Minato, get my baby out of here or so help me I will rip you to shreds!”

‘Forgive me, Kushina,’ he thought as he grabbed the baby and flashed away.

The shed exploded as Kushina turned her wrath on the one who dared imprison Kurama-sama.

* * *

The sun rose on devastated Konoha wracked by grief. If one could see from the perspective of the bird overhead, they would see a broken land that still trembled from the horror of the battle that was waged on it the night before. In the village itself, entire clans were in mourning as the civilians battled with the catastrophic loss of shinobi in the attempt to quell the danger. A white haired man sat slumped by the gates of a once stately, if modest compound. The compound in question was now a broken ruin where wood and earth twisted in a shattered mosaic. Ash still clung to the smoke laden air, and the heat pouring from the ruins was all that was left of the fire that gutted the compound the night before. The wails that filled the village haunted the man. Never had the village been so threatened - not even during the third war where Iwa and Kusa nin were breathing down the borders of Hi no Kuni itself and food was scarce. The third war that was the forging ground for the legend of his student. The student that was now dead leaving behind nothing but a cursed child.

“Jiraiya-kun,”

He turned his head towards the voice. Irrespective of his feelings, Ma deserved his respect. The concern in her inhuman voice was palpable.

“I've outlived another one,” he said, almost in a whisper.

Small, webbed feet rested on his knee. He glanced down at Pa, whose head was bowed as though the gauze wrapped around his head weighed it down. His clone was with the Hokage, and his teammate was in the hospital even as they tried to deal with the backlash of everything that had occurred. The last of his teammates was expected today - a day too late to salvage what lay close to his heart. A jinchüriki was no legacy for someone like Minato. The gallant toad sage of mount Myoboku sat by the ruined gates of his student's legacy with only two elder sages for company as his tears followed the track of his red facial markings into his hair.

* * *

Inoichi sat in the cell he'd been thrown into, hammering his resentment into something that would let him out of where he'd been told to stay till he ‘calmed down’. In retrospect, he should not have tried to wring the child's mind to mush. It was just a baby; a baby that was likely the ground zero for the chemical weapon that wiped out the occupants of the paediatric ward, but still a baby. He exercised supreme will as he forced down the gibbering part of his mind that wanted to hurt the newborn. As though the Kyūbi rampage was not enough; as though the 30% loss of the Yamanaka shinobi population was not enough, his heir was gone. In a single night! Inoichi could literally feel the seams of his mind trying to unravel. The newborn had been taken into custody of the Hokage - the fact that no one came to claim the child only supported his theory that the child was planted for the sole purpose of what had happened. The news was already spreading, and only a healthy mix of fear and respect for Orochimaru's ruthlessness kept people away from loudly protesting at the Hokage tower. He heard the door to his isolated cell block open, and footsteps approach his door. They stopped, before the owner spoke.

“You're calmer now, Inoichi?”

Even though Shikaku’s voice sounded bored, he could still hear the rage in his voice.

“Why are you calm about all this,” he said instead, ignoring Shikaku’s question, and putting as much scorn as he could manage in his voice. He knew he was being unfair, and the brief spike in the intent of the laid-back man drove a bit of shame into him.

“Wrong target,” was all the man said as he unlocked his cell, as though the snark was the answer to his original question. The man looked tired, and he threw in a bundle as he stepped back to lean against the wall of the corridor opposite the cell door. He caught it as he stood, shaking out the new coat as he stretched.

“By the way,” began Shikaku as he stepped out of the cell, “that Kumo spy was found with his throat slit earlier today.”

“Anyone see anything?” he asked as he donned the new coat brought for him.

“Who knows? Everyone who had a route even remotely touching the prisoner’s guard detail is dead. Anko’s only alive because the Hokage called her in to assist his secretary with the paperwork before it all went to shit yesterday,” replied Shikaku as they strolled out of the cell block. He was silent for a bit before he eventually spoke.

“I should have kept my cool, shouldn't I?” he said quietly.

Shikaku just nodded. He didn't push his face into his foolishness, even as retribution for his stupid comment in the cell.

‘Shikaku is good people; and I need to screw my head on straight. Kumo will get away with this shit if I continue this way,’ he thought with a mental sigh.

“Take me to the corpse,” was all Inoichi said out loud.

“You've mastered it?” asked Shikaku, genuine curiosity in his voice - a rarity. All Inoichi did was smile.

* * *

Orochimaru watched as the last participant for the debrief walked in, her assistant by her side. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jiraiya activate the privacy seals on the room. When Hiruzen nodded to Shikaku to begin the meeting, he stealthily entered sage mode, tasting for the emotions of the participants as they gave their reports.

/Watch Danzo/ he signed to Jiraiya from his position. The war hawk was quiet - too quiet. He'd be frothing at the mouth normally, but he and Homura were silent as the proceedings went on. He took active interest when Danzo's heart rate spiked as Inoichi was speaking, and focused on what the blonde mindwalker was saying.

“...cted my jutsu for analyzing the last imprints on a dead person's soul - regardless of the state of the body. This is the reproduction of the person who killed the prisoner, and attached are the profiles of the people who neutralized the guards. The only thing we could get on the squad that killed the guards is their chakra signature and scent at the time.”

“Give me their scents,” he said, steel in his voice. He could hear the heartbeat of Danzo spike again. If Danzo was behind this… Inoichi nodded and placed his hands on his head, transferring the scents to him. He summoned a snake to give her the scent, and she left to pass the message to all his summons - the bearers would all be dead or captured in 48 hours. Hiruzen nodded his thanks at him. More reports came in until all the relevant parties were debriefed. It was just the council in the room now, and silence reigned as they waited for Hiruzen to speak.

The old monkey swept his eyes over them all - the haggard looking Shikaku, who was now the jonin commander; Jiraiya, who was now heading intelligence; the twin doujutsu clan heads, Fugaku and Hiashi, who were in charge of internal security and border patrol; Danzo, who represented civilian interests; Inoichi, who headed counterinsurgency and counterintelligence; and himself. No Minato, with his quirky perspective. No Eiji. No Mariko.

“Homura, it goes without saying that you will be going to the capital as soon as possible. We must keep ahead of the rumors, and control them as well as we can,” said Hiruzen, his first words since he opened the meeting. Homura nodded, the facade of a gentle grandfather he carried around gone completely. He turned his attention to Danzo.

“Danzo, what are the civilians saying?”

The scarred man gave his report in his usual emotionless tone.

“The general sentiment is a decline in the trust in the ability of the village shinobi to keep the village safe. One or two have expressed their belief in the need for a radical improvement in the shinobi training program as soon as possible.”

Orochimaru kept his thoughts from his body language perfectly, yet could help but sneer at the man mentally as he droned on. The man's absolute conviction that he was a sort of effective ‘shadow Hokage’ was only solidified by the bits Orochimaru and Jiraiya had given the man as they continued to set him up for his destruction. One of the things he and Jiraiya agreed on before his appointment to the council was their hatred for Danzo, and the weakness with which Hiruzen handled him. ‘The blade is already in your heart. You just don't know enough to lie down and die yet,’ he thought viciously.

“Very well. To supplement our shinobi numbers, you will hand over all the root shinobi who are still alive - active duty or not - to Jiraiya. The show of force is necessary to crush any ideas that the village has been weakened in any way,” said Hiruzen.

Orochimaru hid his shock there. This was the first time his old sensei was openly moving against his former teammate. Something was up, and Orochimaru hated being out of the loop. He turned to Shikaku, ignoring the sputtering of Homura, and the silent glare from Danzo. Even more interesting.

“Shikaku, you will review the academy scheme and make changes to allow us to focus on heavy combat genin for the foreseeable future. You need to do something about that 66% failure rate for academy graduates seeking to become combat genin - we cannot afford the waste anymore. Whoever is not going to be a combat genin should be obvious by the end of the first year, and shunted to administrative training or barrier fuuinjutsu as soon as possible.”

“Time frame?” asked the lazy Nara.

“I want a preliminary report in two days time. Give this top priority.”

The man nodded his acknowledgement.

“Hiashi, Fugaku, is there anything your department needs?” he asked as he focused on the dojutsu users.

The two eyed themselves, before Fugaku took the floor. “We would like to request that Inuzuka teams be temporarily drafted for internal security at this time. A great number of my clansmen were lost in the battle with the bijuu.”

“Done,” replied Hiruzen.

“Hokage-sama,” interrupted Koharu. Homura was still fuming. Hiruzen inclined his head for the elder to continue. “How exactly was the bijuu brought here? More importantly, how was it defeated?”

Hiruzen glanced at Jiraiya, who indicated that his teammate would answer the question. Orochimaru leaned into his chair as he considered how to answer the question, signalling Jiraiya to buy him a few seconds. He and Jiraiya had worked out what they felt happened - with help from the toad and snake elders. However, much was still conjecture, and he was loathe to release new information. Hiruzen simply nodded at the by-play. Their sensei still remembered their signs.

“I don't really think it matters much how the bijuu got here. The most important thing was that it was defeated, no?” Orochimaru got the hidden message there - Jiraiya felt they should give a bullshit answer. He wasn't so sure that would be the best. ‘After all, the most convincing lies are those laced with truth,’ he thought to himself.

“Jiraiya,” replied Danzo, saying the name like it was an insult, “it would be useful for us to know how the bijuu got here so we can prevent such loopholes in the future.”

Orochimaru raised his hand to forestall Jiraiya’s no doubt heated reply. “The information is classified, esteemed elders,” he began. “I will tell you how the bijuu was defeated though. Minato invoked the shinigami contract.”

“In that case, I assume the boy is the new vessel,” replied Danzo. It was not a question, and no one had any doubt who the boy in question was.

“Don't touch him, Danzo,” warned Hiruzen. The steel in his voice was palpable.

“He will need to be trained,” replied Danzo.

“And he will be - but not by you,” said Hiruzen, his tone of voice indicating that he was done with the topic. “Also,” he continued, “his identity and status is now an S-ranked secret, and sealed to this council. It cannot be divulged by anyone but myself and the boy himself eventually.”

Orochimaru could taste the disappointment from the two elders, the flaring hatred from Inoichi, Shikaku’s sharp curiosity, and the underlying sadness from Hiruzen. The shinigami contract was Hiruzen’s creation, and was a kinjutsu because of the price the shinigami extracted for requests. There was a brief period of silence as everyone retreated into their own thoughts.

“There is one more thing to discuss,” Hiruzen said, halting the warhawk as he stood and turned to leave. “There will be lots of newly created orphans. As ROOT is now under our direct control, it will go very poorly for whoever diverts any orphan for whatever reason.” The warhawk didn't reply. He simply left, trailed by Homura and Koharu. The room emptied quickly until just he and Jiraiya were left with their old sensei.

“Give me the orphans,” he said bluntly.

“Why?” replied Jiraiya, just as directly. His teammate had always been an idealist - a strange combination for one so ruthless.

“No one notices runts - especially if they're orphans,” said the snake sage. “This is our best chance to start a possible counter to the Daimyo's caucus in the village,”

Hiruzen nodded, as Orochimaru knew he would. “I understand your request,” the old man replied, “but I'll have to deny it. Konoha’s charter gives the civilians jurisdiction over all non-clan orphans under the age of four. But perhaps we can work something out…”

* * *

_The elder god of the aspects of Change and Chaos known to the mortals as ‘shinigami’, couldn't be any more satisfied if he tried. His patience had finally paid off, and he'd been given a chance to reclaim this part of reality as his absolutely. His twin aspect of Order and Birth had been corrupted by the Otsutsuki, her consciousness broken and dispersed throughout this reality, and her power stolen by the Otsutsuki wench. It was obvious that his twin was gone, transformed in a way she could not reconstitute herself from any longer. However, her office remained open, and without the balance they provided, things began to skew too much in his favor. So he'd invested in raising her replacements. The Otsutsuki seeded her power in humans, and those very humans would be the key to her downfall. His blessing on the Uzumaki clan, and their relationship with the largest concentration of his sister's remains was supposed to be the start. The combination of power from the Kyūbi, and the pinnacle of the Uzumaki bloodline ‘perfect adaptation’ (when it eventually manifested), was supposed to set the stage for the baby steps into filling the empty aspect. At least until that thrice cursed Uchiha threw a wrench in his plans. The Kyūbi was enthralled, and the movements of politics set in motion by the cursed Uchiha eventually led to the destruction of his investment in the Uzumaki. He'd been livid for years - as the mortals count it. Then the perfect opportunity presented itself - almost like the meddling of a god. It might have been nearly unbelievable if he didn't know that that was exactly how the One Above All tended to act. One of the three contracts he'd drawn for mortals (when he was going through that phase) summoned him to the most perfectly poised situation. There, like a bad fan fiction scene, was a full blood Uzumaki newborn in the hands of the contract user, the sentient power receptacle that got away barreling towards said contract user through the burning ruins of a human village, and the mortal responsible for ruining his initial plans somewhere in the distance fighting three others. The person who used his contract wanted him to deal with the enthralled receptacle - Kyūbi, as he called it. Fortunately for him, the human had no idea how much leeway existed in the words ‘deal with’. Perhaps the human held out hope that such open ended statements would solve the problem decisively. Perhaps the blood covering half his face was from a head injury whose acquisition rattled the blonde’s brain one too many. No matter. It was almost comically simple to take advantage of the open-ended contract to merge the spirits of the baby and the sentient power storage, wrap their souls around each other, seal the corporeal form of the power receptacle into the baby as a ‘ninth gate’, and complete the evolution of the Uzumaki adaptation to its final form of ‘Unlimiter’ using the trauma of the procedure. All he'd needed to do was to cheat and add the soul of the fool mortal who frustrated him initially to the price - without the knowledge of the summoner, of course. As he admired his work, he felt a huge surge of souls incoming - mostly babies, from the stench of innocence permeating the horde. ‘I'm already tinkering so far… Might as well go for broke,’ he'd thought, as he repurposed the energy and sealed an imprint of himself in the baby. The healthy paranoia seasoning the souls of the contract user and a full blood Uzumaki returning to his domain somewhere in the distance was simply the icing on what was a very satisfying night. Those Uzumaki really did spice up his unlife._


End file.
